{"id":851,"date":"2009-08-17T20:44:50","date_gmt":"2009-08-17T20:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/08\/chronicles-of-middle-earth-part-nine-land-ho.html"},"modified":"2009-08-17T20:44:50","modified_gmt":"2009-08-17T20:44:50","slug":"chronicles-of-middle-earth-part-nine-land-ho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/08\/chronicles-of-middle-earth-part-nine-land-ho.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronicles of Middle Earth Part Nine: Land Ho!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NZ<\/a><\/span>
The black-backed gull above surveys land and sea.  We can only imagine how he perceives the islands of New Zealand.  When you get to Middle Earth (aka New Zealand) there are things you expect to see, thanks to reading the travel guides ahead of  time.  But the best part of traveling are the surprises — the things you didn’t expect to find, like the tribute to Admiral Byrd atop Mt. Victoria in Wellington.
\n\"NZ<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n

Even the Hobbits met the unexpected when they left the Shire.  Here below are the remarkable, back-lit floor maps in the Te Papa (Our Home) national museum in Wellington.<\/p>\n

\n\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\n\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
But land maps don’t tell the whole story of Middle Earth, because when you get to bodies of water there are Leviathans in the sea. For example, here is a colossal squid found off the coast of NZ.  Perhaps you will remember the tentacled sea creature that just about snagged a Hobbit as they entered the mines of Moria.  I’m betting it was like this squid, which the Hobbits then pickled and put in a Hobbit museum somewhere.<\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

But there were other great sea creatures off the coast of Middle Earth. Behold the ammonite. This is not any ordinary escargot.<\/div>\n

\n\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The New Zealand islands have so much to offer by way of geographical surprises.  Remember as one goes further and further south, the weather gets colder and colder.  One can be swimming off the north island in the morning, jump on a plane, and ski on the Southern Alps of the south island in the afternoon.  One can enjoy gently kayaking in the bays around Auckland, and then head for the really big and dangerous surf in the Tasmanian Sea off the west coast.  One can bask in the hot, murky minerals of the geothermal springs around Rotorua, and drink crystal clear water from the glacial lakes around Queenstown. 
\n\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

There could hardly be a more perfect locale than New Zealand for the filming of these wonderful Narnia and LOTR tales.  And the good news is, they’re not done!  Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Hobbit are next, albeit they are projects shared with Australia.  Praise God we lived to see these fantastic tales written by creative Christians properly visualized.  <\/p>\n

Thanks to all the wonderful Kiwis who hosted us while we were exploring New Zealand, especially our Wesleyan church-hosts Richard and Jane Waugh plus our hospitable house-hosts Graham and Jennie Jones.  We hope to return before the Return of the King.  As Gandalf tells Sauruman in the battle on the dark tower: “There is only one true Lord of the Rings”!<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The black-backed gull above surveys land and sea.  We can only imagine how he perceives the islands of New Zealand.  When you get to Middle Earth (aka New Zealand) there are things you expect to see, thanks to reading the travel guides ahead of  time.  But the best part of traveling are the surprises —…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nChronicles of Middle Earth Part Nine: Land Ho! - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/08\/chronicles-of-middle-earth-part-nine-land-ho.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronicles of Middle Earth Part Nine: Land Ho! 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}